comes right through. >> also, tomorrow night, all of the nbc universal networks, including us, will air a benefit concert featuring bruce springsteen, john bon jovi, and others. you got to watch it. stay tuned. hi, everybody. we enter the final stretch. welcome to the "closing bell." i'm maria bartiromo at the new york stock exchange. the bill,s market kicking off a new month with a solid rally. investors optimistic ahead of tomorrow's key october job report. >> tomorrow's employment numbers could have a major effect not only on wall street but on the presidential election as well. we'll get market experts to weigh in on that a little later. the other big story, of course, the continued fallout from hurricane sandy. if you have a car in new york, new jersey, other areas affected all along the coast, chances are you're having a hard time filling your gas tank. many stations are still closed.

others are seeing huge lines. the question is how long is this going to last? we're going to get into that coming up. >> but first, let's look at where we stand as we approach this final stretch. the mark up 131 points on the dow. check it out. 1% higher on the industrial average. technology among the better performers. you have the nasdaq composite up 42 points, that's 1.5%. s&p 500 looks like this. nasdaq at the highest levels of the afternoon right now. s&p, very close to it. up about 15 points. better than 1%. >> pretty good gains. let's dig deeper into the rally, what we can expect from the jobs numbers tomorrow. >> gentlemen, good to see you. thanks for joining us. gary, let me kick this off with you. you think market rally today is sustainable? >> well -- hi, maria. yeah, thank you.

you know, it's kind of a combination of a good technical and fundamental rally. you know, a great confluence, almost a perfect confluence of positive economic numbers this morning. jobless claims, payroll, productivity, consumer confidence, manufacturing. all pointing to a, you know, a steady recovery. you got china on top of that with their gdp improving. so it's given the market a lot more confidence as far as the stability of our recovery. >> dan, what do you think of this rally? especially on the first day of a new month. this late in the year s it about the fundamentals, or is something else going on? >> it's clearly about the fundamentals, but we're also going to answer a big question. who's the next leader of our country? what direction are they going to take us in? market hates uncertainties. that's one of the big uncertainties that's going to be answered very shortly because know the wednesday after tuesday we're going to have the existing

president or a new president. >> dan, do you think the hurricane sandy did anything to skew or change the dynamics of this election? >> you know, it's too early to really tell. i think by far the bigger number that we're going see tomorrow, and that's going to be the unemployment number, that's what the president's going to talk about at every one of his campaign stops. that's also what mitt romney's going to speak about at every one of his campaign stops. >> that is the big number there. gary, at this point, we're still in earnings season. many companies had to delay their earnings reports. we have to get out of this crisis mode here. are you surprised we're rallying even though the markets still face a lot of uncertainties? >> no, bill, i'm really not that surprised. we've had a decent selloff in the market. the s&p 500 is off about 4% or 5% from its peak in mid-september. you know, now we're getting

about 100 basis points back here. the technology sector was up almost 10%. it's having a nice bounceback as well. so i'm not too surprised. there is a technical effect going on here with this rally. >> all right. thank you, both, for joining us today and your thoughts on today's market. appreciate it very much. so on the heels of sandy, finding gasoline is becoming harder and harder in the metropolitan area surrounding new york city. it's becoming a major headache for many commuters in one of the most densely populated areas of the country. mary thompson at a gas station in new jersey where some drivers are waiting up to a number of hours to fill up. >> that's right, bill. all day we've been showing our viewers the long lines that have formed here at the vince lombardi rest stop in ridgefield, new jersey. we've been here since about 4:00 in the morning. since then, there's been a steady stream of cars lined up.

it might take you 25 minutes to get gas traveling south. if you're traveling north, it can take you up to two hours, as it did for clarence lewis. >> it's horrible. lines long everywhere. ran out of gas once. survived it. got back on the road. then got up early this morning, like 7:00, to get over here to get gas. >> the reason you can't get gas, gas stations can't get power. without power, they can't pump gas. if they have power, they may not have gasoline because they've sold out and can't get their tanks refilled. that's because the storage terminals are without power too. so they can't pump gas to be delivered to stations or receive any new shipments. one solution, trucking in gas from out of state. this is going to be made easier because new jersey governor chris christie signed a waiver allowing this to happen. nevertheless, the crucial element here remains power. if you get power, you can get the gas stations up and running again and the terminals up and running again as well. that's what we're waiting for. guys, back to you. >> it's a crazy situation.

kind of a daisy chain waiting to be solved. mary, thank you. let's get some insight on the crazy gas situation. >> yeah, joining us now from tulsa, oklahoma, is randy fouch, ceo of radar petroleum. >> good afternoon. thanks for invitining us. >> what a situation we find ourselves in. how is the storm affecting oil and gas from your stand point? >> first off, our thoughts and prayers for all the people really impacted by this. but this isn't really a gasoline problem. nor is it particularly a refinery problem as we've heard. it's an electricity problem and the damage to the local electrical supply. it's a terminal problem. the refineries have storage. some of them are back up. it's that last road from the

terminal to the gas station and the gas station being able to purpose pu pump it. if you're waiting in line for gasoline, it's a significant issue, but it's a local issue. regionally and nationally, we have a great infrastructure with lots of supply. >> i mean, you understand that supply chain process. let's assume that some of these filling stations that supply the gas tankers themselves that take the gas out to the gas stations, let's assume they get their power back sometime late tonight or tomorrow. how long do you think it would take to get the gasoline pumped back into those tankers and out to the gas stations? how long does it generally take? >> well, the issue is going to be what was the damage to the actual pumping facility themselves and how safely can they bring them up online. getting power to the terminal is step one. the second step is going to be determining whether or not the pumps were damaged from salt water and is it safe to fire

back up and turn on the terminal. that may take some more time. >> so is that a week or months? what's the short term outlook and what about longer term, in terms of pricing on energy? you think this is weeks or months or what? >> we think that the nation has a great infrastructure. we think we have a great supply of crude and refined products. the terminals -- the epa waived the need to put ethanol in the gasoline at the terminal. the ability to get the terminal back up, assuming the pumps aren't too badly damaged, is measured in a few hours or days. if the pumps are so badly damaged and the transfer facilities, then this could be days or weeks. from a price point of view, i think locally it may have some impact, but across the nation,

you know, the northeast consumes about 30% of the total u.s. demand for gasoline. you know, that demand is way down since there's not as many people driving. i think the impact on the nation's gas price is minimal. >> all right. >> mr. foutch, thanks for joining us today. appreciate it very much. >> thank you. the latest pictures from downtown new york still pretty ugly. take a look at this picture i took on my way down here today. this is down the block. >> you took that today? >> i took this today, bill. >> the water hasn't changed at all. >> it hasn't changed from yesterday at all. i was just coming in. this is the thauunnel that leado the brooklyn battery tunnel. i got out of the car. the cops didn't want me to do it. >> they're not going to stop maria bartiromo. >> no, they did stop me. i took the shot and ran back in the car. isn't it extraordinary? >> i was thinking about that today. there are priorities that have to be set. you listen to mayor bloomberg.

he's talking about priorities being getting food and water and power to the people of manhattan. transportation will have to wait to some degree. to get those tunnels pumped out is going to take some time and some resources that they would rather divert to other areas they feel are more important right now. which is understandable. >> absolutely. there's another shot, the shot i took yesterday where they're taking the water from the subway and pumping it out of the subway down at the goldman sachs building. the water is going into the street. that's the same exact look of the shot i took yesterday. so the efforts are ongoing. like you say, there's a lot to do. bill, these subways are just jammed with water. >> and it's going to take some time. much longer than i think we are expecting at this point, unfortunately. we're going to take a break, come back. about 50 minutes left in the trading session. the market actually strengthening into the last hour with a gain of 131 points on the dow. >> stick around. we have a lot more to come on this busy edition of the

"closing bell." coming up, numbers game. a batch of positive economic data sparks a rally, but is tomorrow's number the one that could make all the difference in tuesday's election and this market? we talk jobs report and superstorm sandy with donald trump straight ahead. and maria means business. two major market movers, two exclusive interviews. starbucks ceo howard schultz and aig chief robert talk earnings and sandy's effect on their bottom lines. that's all ahead on the "closing bell."

welcome back. market up 130 points. let's get to bertha coombs. >> a lot of folks have worried about green mountain coffee with starbucks introducing the k-cup system. well, green mountain is going to be the official producer of costco's k-cups, which do sell most likely for a lot less than some of the other brand numbers. they got a six-week high off that news. still having a good day, nonetheless. back to you. >> all right, bertha. thank you so much. big rally headed into the close here. about 45 minutes left.

let's take a look at where we stand with a market that's up in the triple digits. volume on a light -- well, it's mediocre right now, bill. i was surprised at volume yesterday headed into the close. things definitely picked up at the end of the day. >> as you would imagine at the end of the month. >> exactly right, bill. up 1% on the industrial average. nasdaq right now at 1.5%. the s&p 500 with a gain of 1%. of course, hurricane sandy may have put a lot of things on hold, but the october jobs report is not one of them. the all-important economic reading will be released tomorrow morning and could be a market mover. >> let's get an early look at what it could mean for wall street. we have rick santelli and steve liesman joining us. steve, it comes after a day of pretty decent economic data we got. >> yeah, it's certainly a better way to go into what the uncertain effects of hurricane sandy are going to be. to have the economy stabilized on a slight upswing from what

weren't great numbers. the consumer hanging in there with the biggest problem being business spending. i think ultimately what we're going to see tomorrow are numbers that are in line, 125 to 150. i don't get too hung up in 10,000 here, 10,000 there. show me 250 and i'll be really excited. show me that 70 or 50,000, and i'll start getting concerned. >> rick, is that priced into the market? what kind of reaction will we get? >> i think it is priced in. i'm not sure we get a big market move on that. i congratulate the bureau of labor statistics. i'm sure there was pressure potentially to delay the number. many are glad they didn't. i think over the last couple days steve and i have raised issues that this is going to be an important number for a number of reasons, not to the least of which it is going to establish a baseline. a lot of uncertainty in the future. if this number is better or worse than expected, it's a baseline. it's going to put a lot of questions in.

this number is going to get affected by some of the destruction and rebuilding going on due to sandy. it's going to make things a lot more complex, make visibility a lot more come plplicatcomplicat. >> yeah, how does this weather event complicate things on the employment? >> just a couple things here. tomorrow's numbers won't be impacted. the next survey will be the week of the 12th. you could imagine there being lower employment levels right now and for the next couple weeks. then numbers coming back again or those people being rehired. it's possible it does not show up in the jobs numbers but perhaps shows up in later numbers as more construction workers are hired. then again, if people don't report to their jobs, if they're not on the payroll, they would come off the roll. it could be about even. depends upon the timing and the amounts of reconstruction that go on. >> so, steve, what's the cutoff point for the monthly jobs

report? i was having this discussion with somebody the other day. it was october 30th when we saw the storm. they obviously can't release the number on november 2nd and incorporate the last couple of days of the month, right? so what's the cutoff date? >> it's the week that includes the 12th. >> okay. all right. >> as far as the data we got this morning, construction spending was good. a lot of it was the home building around the country. commercial wasn't so good. government wasn't so good. >> the ism was a little better. i want an asterisk next to everything. when i say better, it's not good. certainly better than the sub-50 we had the last couple months. manufacturing may be on the up swing. the regional surveys have not been that good. so the jury is out a little bit. we know we were on a down swing through the summer. we know we had a little bit of stability. now we've got to take that timing and put everything ahead. say, what's going on in the real

economy? we were stabilized a little on the upswing. now we have to factor in sandy. that makes things unclear. >> 8:30 a.m. eastern time tomorrow morning. i know you guys will be there. ready to go tomorrow morning. >> see you then, guys. thanks. meanwhile, this market still rallying, near the highs of the session ahead of the jobs report. bob is in the middle of the action. we got good jobs numbers this morning, bob. is that what this rally is about, or is it in anticipation of tomorrow? >> no, we're near the highs of today. ism number was good. consumer confidence, sentiment was fairly good. overall, this is the first day of the month you get volume here. take a look at what else is going on. we have beaten up stocks catching a nice bid. the techs have been doing well. these had a horrible month. doing a little better today. financials are doing a little better. i want to put up the auto parts companies. advanced auto parts has hired

blackstone to explore a possible sale of the company. that's according to sources. you can see all the other auto parts companies also moving up on that as well. guys, back to you. >> all right. thanks so much, bob. we're in the final stretch here. 40 minutes until the closing bell sounds for the day. you just saw the market. it is near the highs of the day. technology leading, up 42 on the nasdaq, bill. >> well, stores throughout the northeast have been shut down because of sandy. when we come back, we'll look at whether a discounter like target or a luxury retailer like sachs is more likely to come out of this disaster unscathed. also a, the new york city marathon will go on this sunday despite widespread damage throughout the area. coming up, donald trump is going to weigh in on whether the city's valuable resources should be diverted from the recovery to the marathon. and as we head to the break here, here's a sobering before and after shot of the damage in seaside heights, new jersey. perhaps one of the hardest hit if no the hardest hit community as a result of sandy. coming back after this.

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welcome back. technology really leading this market rally today. let's get to it seema mody with that angle. >> kicking off november on a strong note. october, not the best month for tech stocks, losing roughly 7%. let's check out some of today's big movers. research in motion outperforming its peers. the street getting excited about its blackberry 10 device, which

looks like it's on track to launch first kwquarter of 2013. bill, back to you. >> all right, seema. thank you very much. shares of target have been down about a percent today after the mass merchant posted disappointing seams figures. meanwhile, many high-end retailers are up, including sachs, which is trading more than 2% higher today despite a huge presence in the new york area. which is a better buy right now? let's talk numbers on that. on technical side, it's richard ross. on the fundamental side, patty edwards with true tina financial in seattle. patty, what do you think? do you expect hurricane sandy to have a material impact on a saks or target? >> i absolutely think it's going to have an impact on both of them and in completely different ways. if you think about it, saks is stuff more than you can do

without whereas with target you're going to be buying clothing, replacement home goods. you're going to be buying even food. so their sales are going to be going up whereas the money that would have gone toward clothing is going to be going to places like target for restocking. i think this is going to be a big deal. on top of that, target doesn't have that many stores that are affected by this. saks fifth avenue, i've heard estimates up to 42% of their stores being affected by hurricane sandy. >> so i'm going to sound naive by asking the next question, but which who do you think you'd be buying? >> well, with the price plus the fact tart get is growing, i'd g with target. they're opening stores. saks is closing stores. >> rich, what about the charts? >> the charts are telling us a different story. target has been up year to date, but it's not a great stock chart right now. it all begins back here earlier this year. we see the textbook continuation

pattern. we get a decisive breakout above resistance at 59. i want you to remember that 59 level. we see that stock run up into an exhaustive top. we think that trend has changed direction. it's now down. look at this classic double-top resistance right around that 63 level. we think this support comes back into play. 59 takes you to the 200-day moving average. so we have a $59 downside target on target. >> so you're weary of target right now. what about saks? >> saks, easy on this one. let's keep it simple. the stock doesn't like the 12-level, as you can see. pretty much a triple-top that takes us back to february. what it does like is the ten level. we form nice support here. held there. nice basin here. that's three months of support. that's going to be tough to pierce on the downside. we're a better buyer at the low end of that range. when you take out the interyat term resistance around 1075, it's going to set the stage for a retest of the high end of the rage around the 12 level.

buy low, selt high. that's what we do. >> there you are. once again, the fundamentals and technicals disagree on something. we learned a new term today. easy peasy. thank you, both. see you later. >> bill, thank you so much. 30 minutes before the closing bell sounds for the day. we have a market off of the highs but still holding on to the triple-digit move on the dow. nasdaq up about 40 points. president obama's touring sandy's devastation in new jersey. could his leadership during the storm give him an edge on the election? donald trump a big supporter of mitt romney will join us and weigh in on that. then, how much will sandy end up costing the insurance industry? aig ceo robert benmosche is with me in an exclusive. stay with us. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 when i'm trading, i'm totally focused. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and the streetsmart edge trading platform from charles schwab... tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 gives me tools that help me find opportunities more easily. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 i can even access it from the cloud and trade on any computer.

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welcome back. 30 minutes left on the trading session. all in all a good rally today. unusual ahead of the unemployment report out tomorrow. usually the market likes to remain neutral ahead of time. not today. the dow is up 115 points off the highs of the session here. the s&p has a similar gain percentage-wise, up about a percentage point.

it's the nasdaq which was yesterday's big laggard on the day that's up almost 2%. now 1.3%. a 40-point gain as we head toward the close. >> all right, bill. thank you. as we head into the final days before the election, everything counts. investors no doubt seeing strength in the market today. tomorrow it will be all about jobs. the final labor report is due before america casts its vote for president on tuesday. donald trump is joining us now to talk on the phone about the market, the economy, and this election. donald, good to talk with you. thanks for joining us. >> hello, maria. >> how pivotal is tomorrow's jobs report on the election outcome? what do you think? >> i think it's going to be very important. i also think, flarankly that, t hurricane was a very, very positive thing for president obama. he's out there campaigning all over the place, standing in every puddle he can find. frankly, i think it's very, very positive for obama. it shouldn't be, necessarily, but it is politically speaking. >> why do you think the

hurricane was so positive for the president? >> because it got everybody off of his record. people aren't talking about his record. people aren't talking about what he's done, what he hasn't done. people are talking about the hurricane and they see him standing with people that have serious problems. i mean, it was a very, very big problem. it was a terrible, terrible jolt to the country. but they see him out there standing with people and frankly i think that's probably helping him. it shouldn't be, but it's helping him. >> you know, today you've got governor cuomo saying he'd like the federal government to pick up the tab for all the devastation in new york. you have chris christie saying that the federal government should pick up the tab for the devastation in new jersey. how much do you think all these photo ops with governor christie is worth to christie and his state? >> i think they're worth a lot to the president. i can tell you. we'll see what happens after the election. certainly it is a very big boost for the president. a lot of people are surprised by it. but it's a boost for the president. >> well, here's what happens

today. we're skrjust getting this news that mayor bloomberg is endorsing president obama. he is citing climate change. he said sandy reshaped his thinking about the campaign and about climate change and that's why he's endorsing the president. what do you think about that? >> number one, i'm a big fan of michael bloomberg. i think he's terrific. disagree on climate change. if you look at 1950s, we had ten hurricanes between 1954 and 1960 that were monster hurricanes hitting the east coast. i just don't believe it. i'm not a believer in climate change. i think climate change is very, very good for the chinese because we readjust all our factories and manufacturing, making them noncompetitive. the chinese laugh at us. i'm not a believer in climate change. there's a change, but it's a slow meandering change. if you look back into the 1950s, we had massive hurricanes, ten of them, from 1954 to 1960. you know, it's just the way the climate is.

>> who do you think is going to win the election, donald? >> it's going to be very, very close. i can tell you i hope it's going to be mitt romney, but it's going to be very, very close. i think it would have absolutely been mitt except for the hurricane. i think the hurricane has had a profound effect, and i think it's going to help president obama a lot. >> wow. let me ask you about the aftermath of this hurricane. huge impact on communities. typically when you see this kind of devastation, do you think prices go down? does this invite new buyers into the situation because values drop? what's your take? >> well, it's just complete devastation. i know some of the communities. you know, coming from new york and having a lot of businesses in new jersey, i know many of the communities. it's hard to believe what happened to the jersey shore, what happened to certain places that were just beautiful places out on long island. it's complete devastation. it's probably a little bit too early to say, but, you know, there's going to be a big rebuilding process. you could say the rebuilding in

terms of putting people to work will be a positive. what's happened to these communities is just hard to believe. >> you got to believe the prices come down, right? >> you would think. >> since so much devastation has taken place. >> you would think. you would think people would go out and they're going to be buying things. other people will be leaving because they don't want to go through it again. some of the communities that were absolutely destroyed are great, great communities. i know so many people in those communiti communities, and they're incredible people. they want to stay and rebuild. a lot of people are going back to work. >> all right. i know you tweeted that your buildings fared well. >> no major problem. we have lots of good things in my buildings. trump tower was -- that one held up well. all of them, there are many of them. really, we held up very well. >> all right, donald. great to talk with you. thanks so much. >> okay, maria. >> see you soon. donald trump.

bill. >> maria, heading toward the close. about 25 minutes left on the trading session. just off the highs of the day. >> so does the rally get wiped out if tomorrow's employment report disappoints? we have top strategists with their predictions next. also, after the bell, we'll hear from one economist saying the fiscal cliff could be a bigger threat than previously thought. stay tuned for that. more "closing bell" coming up. a crash management system and the world's only tridion safety cell which can withstand over three and a half tons. small in size. big on safety. which can withstand over three and a half tons. thank you, mr. speaker, uh, members of congress. in celebration of over 75 years of our government employees insurance company, or geico...as most of you know it. ...i propose savings for everyone! i'm talking hundreds here... and furthermore.. newcaster: breaking news. the gecko is demanding free pudding. and political parties that are actual parties! with cake! and presents!

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welcome back. we have a market holding on to triple-digit gains with the dow jones industrial average up 106 points. it's slightly off the highs of the day. good to see you guys. thanks so much for joining us. art, let me get your take. what you seeing in terms of flow? >> it's been pretty steady all day. some of it being delivered electronical electronically. first day of the new month, you can't discount that. europe's been relatively quiet. i think the initial claims and the adp added to a feeling that things are getting better. we do have the conspiracy theorists who believe they don't dare come out with a bad number

as the last number before the election. >> when the ism manufacturing number came in above expectations, maria, and that's good. manufacturing is there. consumer confidence has come back. it's all going to come down to profits. it's a mixed picture right now. that's why october was in the red, as you know. >> october was in the red, but toward the end of the month you really had, you know, lowered expectations going into year end. the expectations were way too high going into november. >> no question. you've said that here before. also, the fourth quarter people have ratcheted down looking for about a 6% gain in earnings for the fourth quarter. they were at 9% earlier. this tie is for the san francisco giant, by the way. it's not halloween. it's for the san francisco giants. plus, maria, nine months from now, new york city lights out for the last three days, the delivery rooms had better get ready for nine months from now. >> babies on the way. >> suddenly he's a giants fan? i like that. >> well, i love the tigers and the giants.

i love the tigers and the giants. it was a great series. they've won two of the last three. god bless the san francisco giants. >> steve is out in his own office there. steve, we did see that 2.5% decline in the markets for the month of october. you feel that was more profit taking than a change in trend, right? >> yeah, it felt like it, bill. it felt more like profit taking versus a reversal of trend. generally speaking, the data has been good. earnings were certainly a little sloppier this time around than we've seen the last couple of quarters. if you look at the flows, you look at the volume, and you just look at the overall sort of sentiment in the market and what we've seen, it did feel more like profit taking, particularly after the run we've seen since the end of june. we don't think it's a reversal of trend or anything significant. >> so what's now until the end of the year? >> well, obviously, i think two key factors.

tomorrow's employment report and obviously the election on tuesday. but if you look at the general picture of equities here in the u.s. and corporate balance sheets, particularly valuation levels, stocks are just not expensive here. they may not be dirt cheap, but they're certainly not expensive either. we think, you know, now through the end of the year the things that have worked over the course of the last 12 to 18 months continue to work. large equities is certainly in that category. >> certainly the large dividend payers as well. all right. the sectors that have performed well all year jurnunderperforme last week. we're seeing them in the lead now. what would be your guess in terms of where the money moves sector-wise? >> i think as was just mentioned, next tuesday is a major roll of the dice. several people have strategically played that very well. particularly dividend payers. i think what you're seeing is some people kind of cleaning up, taking some profits, reducing their risk in that thing in case

there is a surprise in the election. i think they're holding back now, but i still see things being somewhat defensive. i don't see anybody taking a highly leveraged position in stocks quite yet. >> and in terms of your base at wealth management at mohr dan stanley, are you seeing risk adversity or wanting them to get risk on trading? >> much more of the former. risk adversity. people wanting to stay defensive. they don't feel we have come out of the woods yet. the corporate confidence is low. consumer confidence has been building. auto sales -- our next number expecting 15 million annualized. people are buying things, but it's expected to be a much lighter retail sales number for the end of the year through the holidays. so you want to stay -- i agree with art. you want to stay with your dividend payers, your drug stocks. you want your johnson & johnson. you want your pfizer. you want your cokes, pepsis, colgates and these great technology companies. >> steve, do you think there's a

sandy play to be had here at all in stocks whether it's energy, materials, retailers? i mean, pick your sector, if you think it's going to be affected. >> well, i think there probably is from a sector perspective. i think that's generally -- i think that's earligenerally a t call to make. obviously the materials in home building stocks are probably an area where people are going to look. generally speaking over the last couple of days, we've had a lot of conversations about broad market volatility. you know, in particular with what we've seen and our products and our flows. a lot of conversations lately. people not necessarily trying to pick the sector but generally looking at this as a driver of volatility, certainly in the near term as we figure out what the total damage is, you know, and what the losses could be. >> are you agreeing that this rally is partly anticipating a good jobs report? what your take on the numbers?

>> our numbers tomorrow, morgan stanley is looking for 130,000 and a tick up from 7.8 to 3. -- 7.9% on the unemployment. not a blockbuster report. >> is everybody back trading and investing post-sandy? are we still talking about, you know, sort of some participants not here? >> well, i think there's a connectivity issue. a lot of clients are having difficulty reaching their brokers. a lot of the funds are having difficulty making sure they've got a full read for people who might or might not want redemptions. there's a certain edginess and nervousness that's not dissipated quite yet. >> all right. okay. that's what i figured. gentlemen, thank you very much. good to see you both. we'll take a short break. we have a market that is holding up here. the nasdaq in the double-digits, bill. >> for one, sandy washed out

that starbucks location in lower manhattan on broad street just south of the exchange. when we come back, we're looking at the bigger supply chain issue that's facing starbucks and a lot of other retailers and companies. then we have my exclusive interview in the next hour with starbucks ceo howard schultz. find out what impact the storm will have on business going forward. we're back in a moment. stay with us. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro.

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welcome back. pretty good rally under way on wall street today. triple-digit move on the dow jones industrial average. the market back in action yesterday. it was the first post-sandy opening here on wall street. it was pretty flat, even though volume picked up at the end of the day. today we're seeing money move into equities. >> how we closed yesterday didn't really matter. it was just the fact it was open for trading. it's interesting to see this gain today as we were talking with the guys last segment. the dow up 128 points. the nasdaq with a stellar gain

of 1.4%. the s&p up more than 1% on this first trading day of the new month here. as we get ready for the jobs number tomorrow, we think about the jobs -- or all the of the economic data today was good. the manufacturing, the construction spending, the adp jobs number, the private sector number, has now changed their me methodology and broadly expanded the number of sampling they take, so it may be closer in correlation to what the jobs number tomorrow looks like. today's number was a gain of 158,000 jobs, which was above expectations. so who knows what that will mean for tomorrow. >> yeah, it's really interesting. why are we changing the methodology on all this stuff now just a couple days before the election? there's some conspiracy theorists out there who think this is really not the time to be changing the methodology on the jobs number. >> but it was just on the adp number, the private sector, not the government's number. the adp number was out of step with the government number a lot of times, and it wasn't a good

predik fctor of that jobs numbe. they broadened their sampling out and used a new company to do that for them. it remains to be seen whether today's number does correlate with tomorrow's number. we will see. >> i think steve liesman earlier said the expectation is anywhere from 125,000 to 150,000. >> in that range, yes. >> for the month. so we'll see about that. cominge of your favorite spots. i'm at the starbucks booth. you would not love to see what's going on here today. there's no one serving. >> where is mark? >> no, they're not here. but this is very nice. they have free coffee for everybody. free tea. there's also cold coffee, if you want. so you can't buy anything, but you've got free cold drinks and free coffee. so maybe you would actually like it. it's not the scene you typically go to every day. i know your routine. >> yes, i know i have that

routine. and this is what companies face in the northeast right now, is getting the supplies to their companies, getting their workers to the stores there. you know, it's that kind of a bottleneck that companies face right now as we try and begin the rebuilding process and try and get back to some semiblens of normalcy. >> all the shops on broad street and wall street are closed. there is one store opened by 48 wall. it's actually the one guy who's serving. i think he's doing quite well. everything else is closed. a couple stores boarded pup. this is going to take so much time. we showed you the pictures earlier where the subways and tunnels are still hugely filled with water. we're hearing expectations that this is really weeks, even months in some cases. >> so many thing wes take for granted. and we don't realize it until we miss them and they're not there. >> yep. >> well, and you're going to talk to howard schultz about that coming up next hour, right? >> howard schultz is going to be with us. the ceo of starbucks is going to talk to us about the devastation

we've been seeing as a result of hurricane sandy and what it means from a business standpoint. of course, we have really terrible stories across the country as a result of sandy. going forward, it's probably likely that the retail sector is going to see its own different kind of suffering in terms of business. >> all right. we'll take a break, come back with the closing countdown for this day. could we see a reversal of this big rally tomorrow if the october employment report disappointing? we have full team coverage coming up. also, we're looking at insurance. of course, my interview is coming up with bob benmosche, the ceo of aig. we'll talk with him in terms of what he expects in business in the coming quarter. >> by the way, do not miss nbc's special concert benefitting hurricane sandy victims. it airs tomorrow night at 8:00 p.m. eastern. all proceeds go to victims of this disaster.

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coming up on three-minute mark before we close out. we're getting pretty decent gains. we're strengthening into the close here. the s&p with a gain of more than 1%. the nasdaq had been the best performer today, a gain of 1.4%. the dow is up about a percent right now with a gain of 129. it was up 177 at the peak. the best and worst performers among the dow components today, the financials have done very well. bank of america, our best perform we are a gain of 4.4% in today's trade. pfizer had earnings out today, down 1.3%. when we look at the best and worst performing sectors among the s&p components today, materials did the best. maybe that sandy play anticipating that. a gain of 1.9%. the worst performers included the consumer staples, which may be hit initially by what's going on with sandy and the utilities, which certainly have suffered as a result of the devastation in the parts of the northeast as a result of the storm. on the floor with maria there,

warren myers, market analyst and dme securities. are you surprised at the strength of this market ahead of such an important jobs report tomorrow? >> it's a little bit surprising, but most of the economic data we've been seeing over the last couple days has actually been fairly positive. it's really given us a nice indication or at least hopefully beginning of a positive trend here. so the movement isn't surprising. the strength is a little surprising, yes. >> maria, we are strengthening going into the close here too. >> yeah, well, it's up 126. so we're off the highs. warren, are you seeing any particular flow going into the close here? are we losing altitude? >> i think we're actually strengthening a little going into the close. i think across the board, you've had a lot of strength. the financials acted very well, which has been a lagging group for quite a while. i think that's an indication. it's also the first of the new month, so there's new money coming into the marketplace as well. >> is that what this is all about? it is november. you would think people are

starting to think about taking profits for tax purposes. >> i don't think it's solely that, but i think that's adding a little fuel to the fire. that may be the reason behind the extra strength today. >> and you got bob benmosche coming up, maria. >> yes, he's going to talk not only about the devastation as a result of sandy, but what his business is looking like, what he's expecting in the next quarter and the quarter to follow. of course, we've seen him trying to continue to tell the story of the government getting out of aig and certainly that has had real implications. looking forward to that. in terms of this market, bill, it's all about the jobs report tomorrow. then you have the election. warren, what about that? what's the betting on the floor in terms of the election? >> to be honest, i think the reaction you're going to get regardless of the outcome is going to be very similar. i think people have come to realize the job is maybe bigger than the individual man. until one side or the other can show they can get the parties to work together, i think you're going to get a muted reaction. >> very good. thank